Cast: Gene Hackman, John Cazale, Harrison Ford, Frederic Forest, Cindy Williams, Teri Garr
Directed by: Francis Ford Coppola
The next movie that I felt like it should be good movie after seeing who's in it and who's behind it is The Conversation. I've only see a handful of films with Gene Hackman and I've yet to be disappointed with him and as for John Cazale, in his short career, is my last movie with him. Before Star Wars, Harrison Ford was in this and American Graffiti (also directed by George Lucas of Star Wars) which I'm hoping to see sometime soon. I'll always remember Teri Garr for her role as Inga from Young Frankenstein. In between The Godfather movies, Francis Ford Coppola had time to film The Conversation as he already had finished Part 1 of The Godfather in 1972 and wrapping up Part 2 in 1974.
The Conversation follows a man in his 40's named Harry Caul (Gene Hackman) who is a quiet man with great ears and his occupation is surveillance expert but he works privately and does his own invention. He was hired by the director (Robert Duvall) to follow two people and record the conversation (ah!) between the two and one of them is the wife of the Director. Caul was to piece together the recorded conversation and turn it over to the Director personally. Earlier in his life, his job cost the lives of two people and since he's a religious man, he feared that the one he's on now will add more so he went to the church to confess his sins. He was also disturbed by this and he doesn't know what the Director is going to do once he listen in on the tape so he went out and does some more surveillance.
The Conversation is a cerebral type of film, the one where you have to sit and watch closely. I tried to focus on it but.. the ending just went out of place for me. This will require another maybe two more playings but the suspense was definitely there. I liked the ending as well... that's paranoia for you.
Score: 8/10
Cast: Vegar Hoel, Stig Frode Henriksen, Charlotte Frogner, Lasse Valdal
Directed by: Tommy Wirkola
It has been a while since I've seen a horror movie. I think the last time was almost 2 months ago and that was Trick 'r Treat which was a fun but not so scary film. As for my taste in horror, I'll watch anything from spiritual to creature features to bloodsplatter. The only genre in horror I don't care for is B-movies but that depends on the plot.
The plot in Dead Snow is like in any zombie flick out there, go to an isolated place and camp out for the night and everything in the movie happens in one night. Only in Dead Snow, the zombies were German Nazis and judging from the cover I thought we got a zombie Adolf Hitler but it wasn't him but a colonel with a bruise upper lip. Back during WWII, they had a Einsatzgruppen (German death squads) stationed out in friggin Norway and tortured the locals. Soon after Germany's defeat in the war, the locals retaliated and killing most of them while those that survived including the leader Herzog were chased into the Norweigian mountains and there were assumed froze to death.
Today, we see a group of medical students taking a trip out to an isolated cabin and everything happens in one night! It tried to be serious but Dead Snow had some comical moments and one scene paid homage to Sam Raimi's Evil Dead when one guy cut off his bitten arm to save himself from it spreading and becoming one of the undeads. I thought he was going to attach that red chainsaw to his arm too but he didn't. The Molotov cocktail scene had me laughing and there were some dumb moments but if you've seen enough horror movies, you're to the point where you say "I saw this coming. Shouldn't have done that!" One of the students in this trip is a fat guy and he's the movie nerd, right? He's seen enough zombie movies too and he said "Do not get bitten! Do not get bitten!" and you felt he's going to outlast his friends but no, he decided to stay close to the windows and au revoir. The old hiker was another stupid part because he crashed the party in the middle of the night and warned them of evil in the region and he left and set up a tent some way up in the wood and didn't take his own advice very well. How did he live this long anyway if he's this stupid? But then again, Dead Snow isn't the kind of film to be taken seriously.
Dead Snow was an enjoyable zom com but take in mind that the lanuage is in Norweigian but there's an optional English dub and English subtitle.
Score: 7/10
